Gold, Diamonds and Jewels- OH MY!
Many visitors arrive at Bluff Dwellers Cave who have never been in a real cave before. They arrive with visions of grand crystals, gold, emeralds and jewels embedded in the walls, just like they saw in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They come into the cave and are blown away by the natural beauty of the cave- yet there is no gold, diamonds or other precious jewels to be seen! Why is that?
The first misconception comes from a bit of confusion: There is a big difference between a cave and a mine. A cave is a naturally formed cavity beneath the surface of the earth in soluble rock. A mine is a human-made hole in the ground that is created to find these precious metals and jewels that occur in other types of rocks. What many people are thinking of is a mine, not a cave.
You are not likely to find gold in a limestone cave, it just does not geologically occur! Bluff Dwellers Cave, like many caves in the world, is formed in limestone. Limestone is a sedimentary rock that forms at the bottom of a shallow ocean. It is mostly composed of the mineral calcite that was produced by ocean-dwelling animals. Gold and diamonds occur in different kinds of geologic environments that have intense heat and pressure, and are not found in limestone.
This doesn’t mean the cave isn’t full of beauty- The stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, draperies- all the amazing speleothems- sparkle with water and calcite crystals. These beautiful cave deposits take a very long time to form- some of them in Bluff Dwellers Cave are 10,000’s of years old, or more! They form drip by drip, water that is saturated with calcite arriving in the cave and depositing unique and beautiful speleothems. Every cave is like a fingerprint, no two are the same! So make sure to visit them all to take in their beauty for yourself. Just remember that every visit should follow the Caver’s Creed: “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but carefully placed footprints, and kill nothing but time”.
-Nicole, Bluff Dwellers Cave manager & resident geologist
